


thousands of feet up in the air (won't stop me from falling)

by byungari



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, minhyun is a fanfic writer oOOOoOOooOo, ong is his fan, this is not edited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-26 04:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17134817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byungari/pseuds/byungari
Summary: “Okay, then.” Minhyun leans back into his seat and gives his seatmate one last smile. “Too bad. I’ve been looking for more books to read.”Seongwoo glances down at the book that Minhyun has in his hands. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.“I don’t think this will be your cup of tea,” he says to Minhyun after staring at the book for another second.





	thousands of feet up in the air (won't stop me from falling)

**Author's Note:**

> dear prompter,  
> i hope my fic does your prompt justice! this was a fun prompt to write for :')
> 
> hope you all enjoy!
> 
> **not edited  
> (it's also kind of rushed im sorry that i dont have time management skills)

Minhyun sighs and stretches in his seat, getting ready for the long flight back home. The past semester had been a tough one, and he’s looking forward to going home and eating his mom’s homecooked meals again. Instant ramen had been his dinner almost every night since the start of Hell Week, and Minhyun’s not sure if he’ll be able to stand the smell of ramen without getting war flashbacks for a while.

The seat next to his remains empty until the last few people are trickling in, and he’s glad that he was lucky enough to get a window seat so that he doesn’t have to get up when his seatmate comes.

(Half of Minhyun hopes that the seat remains empty so that he can sit through the flight comfortably but the prospect of sitting alone for almost 15 hours seems a little sad to him.)

His seatmate gives him a polite nod when he arrives and Minhyun returns it with a nod of his own. It’s not too loud in the plane, thankfully, though Minhyun attributes that to the flight being a late night one. He’s just glad there’s no baby who’ll be screaming for the entire duration of the flight.

Or, so he hopes.

The plane takes off after a while and Minhyun relaxes in his seat and closes his eyes when they’re fully up in the air. He hopes to get some sleep before he lands so that his jetlag won’t be _too_ bad.

When he wakes up, the plane is dead silent as majority of the occupants are sleeping. Minhyun groans quietly and stretches in his seat the best he can.

He hears his seatmate shuffling in his seat and glances to his left to see if he’s awake. He’s awake and preoccupied with reading something on his phone, and Minhyun taps his shoulder to get his attention.

His seatmate jumps and takes his earphones out of his ears. “Yes?”

“Do you mind if I turn on the overhead light?” Minhyun asks, gesturing to the lights above their heads. “I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep, so I want to get some reading done.”

“Oh, no.” His seatmate shakes his head. “I don’t mind.” He pauses and hesitates before asking the next question. “Are you Korean?”

Minhyun blinks, wondering how he knew, when it hits him that he’s spoken in Korean without even realizing it. Seems like his brain is still half-asleep and half-dead from finals. “Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. This would’ve been a lot more awkward if you didn’t understand Korean.”

His seatmate chuckles. “No worries. Feel free to turn on the lights; I don’t mind.”

Minhyun gives him a smile. “Thank you.”

He turns on the lights and rummages for his book in his backpack. When he finds it, he shoves his bag (gently) back under the seat in front of him and gets comfortable in his seat to start reading.

Halfway through the third chapter, he hears his seatmate start sniffling and peeks a glance. He’s reading something on his phone, and Minhyun squints to see what he’s reading, and his eyebrows shoot up in surprise when he sees what it is.

_Jaehwan sneaks up behind Daniel, surprising his boyfriend with a hug. “Surprise!”_

_Daniel whirls around in shock but quickly breaks out into a big smile when he sees that it’s Jaehwan. “Hey,” he greets and leans down to give Jaehwan a short kiss. “How was class?”_

_“Class was class,” Jaehwan shrugs, and Daniel snorts._

_“So, you slept?” he teases._

_“You know it,” Jaehwan confirms with a cheeky grin._

Minhyun smiles as he reads the scene his seatmate is reading. It’s a secret Minhyun keeps from all his friends back at school: writing fanfiction, specifically for Kim Jaehwan and Kang Daniel, two idols-turned-actors who won the “best couple” award for their drama this past year.

He usually tends to write in the angst genre, but Minhyun had decided to (after popular demand) try writing something more lighthearted. His most recent story had been met with generally positive response, and he’s surprised that his seatmate is one of his readers.

When he glances up at his seatmate, he’s surprised to see him tearing up. Nothing in this story is particularly tear-jerking material, and he has no idea what would constitute a reaction like this one.

His seatmate wipes a tear and Minhyun turns back to look at his book before he gets caught staring. He racks his brain to try and remember if he’s written a sad scene in the story, but nothing comes to mind.

Minhyun tries to resume reading his book but he gets too curious of his seatmate’s reactions, and his brain doesn’t take in anything he reads on the page he’s on. He discreetly looks at the phone screen again to see which scene his seatmate is reading, and smiles when he sees that it’s the scene where Jaehwan and Daniel are sharing an ice cream cone together.

When he looks at his seatmate, Minhyun is Confused To The Max when he sees that his seatmate looks like he’s constipated.

Minhyun clears his throat, and his seatmate jumps in surprise. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you. Are you okay?” Minhyun asks.

His seatmate quickly locks his phone and clears his throat. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Minhyun’s lips quirk up in a small grin, “you kind of look constipated. And it looks like you’re about to start crying.”

“Oh.” His seatmate’s ears turn bright red. “Um. I’m reading something sad.”

Minhyun keeps his expression carefully blank, but his mind starts racing. Something sad? Nothing in that story should be sad. He wonders if he should break it to his seatmate that he’s the author of the story he’s reading, but he’s not sure how he’ll react.

“I see,” Minhyun says after a beat of pause. “Is it a book?”

“Um.” His seatmate shifts in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “Something like that.”

“Do you recommend it?” Minhyun asks. His seatmate is pretty cute, and his reactions are even cuter. Sue him.

His seatmate looks like he’s about to have an aneurysm and it takes everything Minhyun has not to start laughing right then and there.

“No,” he says slowly, much to Minhyun’s amusement. “I don’t want you to resent me for recommending you something… sad.”

He lets the last word fall flat, as if he’s not sure of the excuse (and a rather pathetic one at that, if Minhyun is being honest) sounds legitimate enough, but Minhyun lets him pass.

“Okay, then.” Minhyun leans back into his seat and gives his seatmate one last smile. “Too bad. I’ve been looking for more books to read.”

His seatmate glances down at the book that Minhyun has in his hands. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

“I don’t think this will be your cup of tea,” he says to Minhyun after staring at the book for another second.

Minhyun’s lips quirk up into a small smile. “You’d be surprised. I’m Minhyun, by the way. Hwang Minhyun.” He introduces himself when he realizes he can’t keep referring his seatmate as his, well, seatmate. He glances at the screen of the TV in front of him and sees that they still have 10 hours of the flight left.

“I’m Seongwoo,” his seatmate—Seongwoo—introduces himself. “Ong Seongwoo.”

“Ong?” Minhyun tilts his head in curiosity.

“You’ve never heard of it, I’m sure.” Seongwoo shrugs. “It’s not a very common last name.”

“No,” Minhyun agrees, then adds: “It’s nice. Having a unique name. I still get mail meant for one of my friends just because we have the same last name.”

Seongwoo laughs. “Sounds tragic. Well, I’ll leave you to your reading, then.” He nods towards Minhyun’s book. Minhyun pouts because he wants to talk to Seongwoo a little more, but at the same time he’s curious of how Seongwoo will react to the rest of his story, so he just nods and gives him a smile.

“Happy reading,” he tells Seongwoo, who gives him a weak smile in return. Minhyun tries to get a little more reading done before he caves to the temptation to look over at Seongwoo again and see his reactions.

This time, Seongwoo has a big frown on his face and Minhyun really, _really_ wants to ask him why he’s frowning like that. When he glances down, he sees that it’s still the same fic from earlier, and Minhyun lets out an inaudible sigh and wonders if his writing is _that_ bad for Seongwoo to be reacting like that.

“What the fuck.” Minhyun catches Seongwoo mumble under his breath. “This is so fucking cute.”

That gets a big smile out of Minhyun and he continues to listen as Seongwoo mumbles other variations of, “Why is this so fucking cute?” and “I’m getting cavities.”

When the flight attendant comes around asking them if they would like any late-night snack or meal, Seongwoo asks for a glass of wine while Minhyun gets a can of soda.

“I was never a big wine person,” Minhyun comments without thinking as he watches Seongwoo take a sip of his wine.

(He looks really good while doing so, too, and Minhyun wonders how such a simple action can make someone look so _good_.)

(So, he’s a little gay for his seatmate. Sue him.)

“Really?” Seongwoo swirls his wine around and stares at the swishing liquid contemplatively. “I like sipping on wine while I read fan—”

He shuts his mouth shut with a loud _clack!_ and Minhyun’s eyebrows shoot up in amusement and surprise. “While reading what?”

“Nothing,” Seongwoo squeaks out. “Nothing at all.”

Before Minhyun can respond with something, the plane starts to shake, and the seatbelt lights overhead come on.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” their pilot starts speaking. “We’re experiencing some rough air, but we should be in the clear very soon. Please stay in your seats and keep your seatbelts on until we say it is safe to take them off again. Flight attendants, please go back to your stations and stay until we get through this turbulence.”

Minhyun sighs and makes sure that his seatbelt is tightened. “I hate turbulence.”

“Uh huh.” Minhyun glances over at how weak Seongwoo sounds and notes how pale he’s gotten and how he’s gripping the armrests as if his life depends on it.

“Are you okay?” Minhyun asks him slowly in concern. “Do you want me to call someone?”

“No, it’s fine.” Seongwoo grimaces a little. “I’m just a little scared of flying, and turbulence makes it worse.”

Minhyun makes a noise of understanding. Flying had always put Minhyun off, too, but the constant flying back and forth between home and school allowed him to get used to it.

The plane shakes again, but more harshly than the last time. It surprises Minhyun because the last time he had felt this much turbulence was, well, never.

What surprises him more, however, is the way Seongwoo grabs Minhyun’s hands in a death grip, and Minhyun’s eyebrows shoot up as he stares at their hands.

“Um, do you mind if I…” Seongwoo trails off and his eyes are screwed shut. Minhyun doesn’t say anything and squeezes back in a silent response and Seongwoo mumbles out a small, “Thank you.”

They sit there holding hands in silence and Minhyun notices that Seongwoo’s wine glass had tipped over and is now dripping down the tray down onto Seongwoo’s pants. “Your wine…”

Seongwoo lets out a grunt. “I’ll deal with that after this turbulence. It feels gross.”

“I can imagine,” Minhyun says mildly. “How are you feeling?”

“I hate flying,” replies Seongwoo.

Minhyun chuckles. “That’s understandable. It’s getting better, I think, right?”

“It’ll get better when we land, and my feet are on the fucking floor,” Seongwoo grunts out, and Minhyun giggles.

“Cute,” he observes and Seongwoo opens his eyes as he whips his head to the right to look at Minhyun.

“What?” he chokes out.

“Oh, sorry.” Minhyun blinks. “Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes.” Seongwoo deadpans.

Minhyun grins. “My bad. So, how was the book? Did you finish?”

“Can we not talk about my book, please,” Seongwoo practically begs. “I’m pretty sure you looked at what I was reading anyways, right?”

“Yes.” Minhyun doesn’t even bother hiding the truth from him. “The Jaehwan and Daniel fanfiction, right?”

“I want to die,” Seongwoo says.

“You can’t die yet,” Minhyun tells him. “Not until you tell me what you thought of it, at least. But don’t die after that, either, because you’re cute.”

“What does me being cute have to do with anything?” Seongwoo asks out loud. “And why are you so curious about what I thought of the,” Seongwoo looks around to check that no one is listening and whispers, “fanfiction.”

Minhyun pauses, wondering if he should reveal himself, then thinks ‘fuck it’. “Because I’m the one who wrote it.”

Silence.

Seongwoo blinks, and Minhyun blinks back.

Seongwoo blinks some more, and Minhyun wonders if he broke his seatmate.

“What.” Seongwoo squints. “What.”

Minhyun gives a hesitant grin. “Surprise?”

“Oh, my god.” Seongwoo looks like he regrets his entire life. “You’re ‘starryfox’ on archive of our own?”

“That’s me.” Minhyun nods in confirmation. “Is that bad?”

Seongwoo lets out a noise that Minhyun can’t identify. “I can’t fucking believe this.”

“What can’t you believe?” questions Minhyun, and Seongwoo flails a little in his seat.

Seems like he’s gotten over his fear of turbulence, Minhyun observes, as the plane gives another shake but Seongwoo doesn’t even bat an eye.

“This,” Seongwoo hisses. “Are you telling me that out of _all_ the seats on this plane, I end up getting the seat next to my favorite NielHwan author—?” Seongwoo shuts his mouth again and stares at Minhyun in horror.

Minhyun, on the other hand, has a grin that’s slowly growing in size at Seongwoo’s words.

“Can we ignore that, please?” Seongwoo whispers.

“No,” Minhyun rejects with a wide grin. “I’m your favorite NielHwan author?”

 “Fuck me,” whispers Seongwoo.

“If you really want me to,” Minhyun tells him. “But I don’t fuck on the first date, sorry.”

“Oh, my god,” Seongwoo says. “You’re crazy. I have a crush on a crazy writer. This is the most cliché thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Minhyun ignores the rest and only focuses on the part of Seongwoo’s sentence that he wanted to hear, and he thanks his professors for fostering his ability of selective hearing. “You have a crush on me?”

Seongwoo mumbles something under his breath that Minhyun doesn’t quite catch, so he leans in closer to try an hear. “What did you say?”

“I said yes, I have a crush on you.” Seongwoo almost bites out. “I had a crush on your writing, and now you’re telling me that the cute guy I’ve been sitting next to for,” he checks the screen of the TV, “a little over six hours is that writer?”

Minhyun bites his bottom lip in an effort to control his grin that’s getting too wide. “You think I’m cute?”

“Did you listen to the rest of what I said?” Seongwoo squints.

“Nope,” Minhyun answers him, sounding a little shameless, but that’s okay. “I have selective hearing.”

Seongwoo exhales. “Okay, yes. I think you’re a _little_ cute.”

“Just a little?” Minhyun prods. “Only a little bit?”

“Okay, maybe you’re a lot cute,” Seongwoo concedes. “Is that why you kept asking me about what I was reading earlier?”

“Yeah,” Minhyun admits. “I was confused about your reactions. Why were crying? The one you were reading is a happy one, isn’t it?”

Seongwoo looks like he _really_ doesn’t want to answer, but answers anyways. “Well, at first I wasn’t sure if it was really you because you don’t really write anything that’s _pure_ fluff, you know?”

“It’s so weird talking about this,” Minhyun says. “None of my friends know I write fanfiction.”

“None of mine knows I read it either, don’t worry,” Seongwoo says wryly.

“Why did it make you cry?” Minhyun brings them back to topic.

Seongwoo shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess because it was so cute but here I am, lonely and sad. I’m pretty sure I failed all my finals, too, so.”

“I also failed all my finals, it’s okay.” Minhyun sighs. “I’m sorry that NielHwan’s happiness made you… cry,” he finishes lamely.

“It’s okay.” Seongwoo laughs, and Minhyun falls for his cute seatmate a little bit more. “It was cute. A nice change of pace from the things you usually write.”

“I was threatened on Twitter a couple of times,” Minhyun admits. “Otherwise I might’ve killed one of them off in like, a plane crash or something.”

“Can we not talk about plane crashes while we’re on a plane,” Seongwoo requests flatly. “Please, Minhyun. You’re really doing wonders for my fear of planes.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Minhyun gives Seongwoo’s hands a little squeeze. “No more talking about plane crashes.”

“My hero,” Seongwoo snickers and gives Minhyun’s hands a squeeze back. They spend the rest of the flight talking about things that Minhyun’s written and then about their lives. Minhyun learns that Seongwoo is a photography student at Parsons while Seongwoo learns that Minhyun studies literature at NYU.

When Seongwoo falls asleep on Minhyun’s shoulder with five hours left of the flight, Minhyun smiles and leans his head against Seongwoo’s head, falling asleep as well.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Minhyun.” Seongwoo whispers and shakes Minhyun a little. “We’re about to land, wake up.”

“Huh?” Minhyun shifts and opens his eyes a little, blinking sleepily. “Oh, are we here?” He sits up and notices that his head had been on Seongwoo’s shoulder and wonders when and how they switched positions without him waking up.

“We’re here,” Seongwoo tells him. “Welcome back to Korea.”

Minhyun groans and stretches. “It’s good to be home. I’m so excited to eat my mom’s cooking.”

“Me too,” Seongwoo agrees with a laugh.

When they land, Minhyun holds Seongwoo’s hands when he sees him wince from the small jolt they feel. They don’t let go until it’s their turn to get up and get their carry-on from the overhead bins.

“So, it was nice meeting you, I guess.” Seongwoo says when they get through customs and are walking towards where their families are waiting for them. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and see each other on the way back to New York.”

“Wait.” Minhyun narrows his eyes and grabs Seongwoo’s arm. “You aren’t planning on never seeing me again, are you?”

Seongwoo pauses. “Um, maybe?”

“Wow,” Minhyun exhales. “I thought we really had a bond there, Ong. I didn’t reveal myself as starryfox for nothing, you know,” he complains, half-jokingly and half-seriously. He hopes that Seongwoo is joking when he said that he’s planning on never seeing Minhyun again.

“Of course I’m joking.” Seongwoo rolls his eyes and breaks out into a grin. “Give me your phone so I can give you my number.”

Minhyun lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Maybe you should think about going into theater, too.”

“I was actually the star of the theater department back in high school,” Seongwoo says off-handedly as he puts in his number into Minhyun’s phone. He calls his phone so that he gets Minhyun’s number as well before handing it back. “Here you go. Call me tomorrow?”

“Okay.” Minhyun grins. “Look forward to it.”

“I will.” Seongwoo chuckles. He hesitates before leaning forward and pressing a chaste kiss onto Minhyun’s cheek. “See you later, Hwang.”

He waves before rushing off to where his family is standing, leaving Minhyun staring at him in a daze (though he still notes Seongwoo’s bright red ears).

“I’m in love,” Minhyun declares to no one.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/iridescent__ong) | [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/gyulhyuck)


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